Ansari X Prize in the context of Xprize

SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (2,000 mph) / 910 m/s (3,300 km/h)using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases drag while retaining stability. SpaceShipOne completed the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.

Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P, was piloted by Mike Melvill. A few days before that flight, the Mojave Air and Space Port was the first commercial spaceport licensed in the United States. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut. The overall project name was "Tier One" which has evolved into Tier 1b with a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space.

Anousheh Ansari (Persian: انوشه انصاری; née Raissyan; born September 12, 1966) is an Iranian-American engineer, space tourist, and entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems, and her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and chief executive officer of Telecom Technologies, Inc. On September 18, 2006, she became the first Iranian person to be in outer space. Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space tourist and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her memoir My Dream of Stars, co-written with American engineer Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010.

She is also the chief executive officer of the XPRIZE Foundation, and the Ansari family is the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize.